David Hayden

David Hayden is the author and founder of The Hospitality Formula Network, a series of blogs designed to help managers and servers provide superior service to their guests. This and many other outstanding articles to help managers and servers excel can be found throughout The Hospitality Formula Network.

For those of you who do not know me personally, I have a confession to make. I am a huge history nerd. This means that The History Channel’s “America: The Story of Us” is taking up a large portion on my DVR. I was watching the episode on World War …

The restaurant industry has its own jargon. It may also have its own language. We have the titles we give positions and then we have the nicknames we use. Every back of the house employee in America has learned to answer to the nickname “ahneeda.” Not familiar with that name? …

A server stealing from their restaurant is nothing new. Each year this happens thousands of times. It is also very seldom reported in the media. Most of these things are handled in house which means that you have no idea if the employee you just hired was fired from their …

For years now restaurants have been instructed that marketing through social networks is the wave of the future. A second dot.com boom has surfaced with companies promising closer ties to consumers for restaurant owners. Social networking does provide a tremendous opportunity to restaurants that commit to successfully managing their online …

In Counting Plates: Parts One we discussed the difficulties faced by managers, servers, and guests resulting from shrinking renewals budgets. I advanced the idea of treating glasses, plates, and tableware as inventory rather than purely as an expense. This allows the cost of these items to be more accurately reflected …

In part one of my discussion of pre-shift meetings, I discussed the things a manager can do to harm the effect of a pre-shift meeting. It was by no means a comprehensive list. There are many other mistakes managers can and do make that harm their pre-shift meetings. It does …

I have worked for a number of companies over the years that held pre-shift meetings with the servers. They have been called a variety of things: line up, fresh talk, jump start, family meal, and many other names have been used to refer to these meetings. I have also managed …

In a previous post, I discussed the benefits of implementing Core Value Marketing as part of a successful growth strategy. This type of program creates a bond with your potential guests while providing tremendous opportunities for free publicity. Most importantly, it allows you to provide much needed support to organizations …